Möbius strip
by JonaBee
Summary: When Nodoka is attacked, it will lead to a strange connection between Ranma Saotome and Ami Mizuno. The fiance situation and fighting youma were bad enough, but how could things get even more complicated? They're about to find out exactly how convoluted things can be.
1. Chapter 1

Möbius strip.

Disclaimer: Ownership of Ranma One Half or Sailor Moon is not one of the traits that Jonakhensu or Weebee possess. Extremely low income, however, is one that both share, and thus litigation is not advised.

Author's Note: Some of you who have followed our 'Gauntlet' story idea showcase may recognize this chapter, as it is the one known as "RSM Nodoka" there. You should probably read through this one, though, as it has had several changes made to it, some of which are major and plot affecting.

Since we don't publish anything from the gauntlet unless we have at least some new content, a second chapter will follow about an hour from this one first being posted.

Chapter 1:Timey-Wimey Ball.

Ranma Saotome was not a happy gender changing martial artist. It wasn't for the descriptor on the beginning of his job title, or even the fact that he was in an entirely new part of Tokyo, where he felt about as lost as Ryoga Hibiki on a good day, but rather due to the letter he had clenched in a white knuckled fist. It had only been a week since his mother disappeared, without a trace, into thin air. Everyone from the Amazons to Kodachi Kuno had claimed responsibility for it, the former in an attempt to leverage him into marrying Shampoo in order to get her back, and the latter because she thought the red haired harridan had been disposed of and his heart would now belong to her. Well, when he said the Amazons, he wasn't being entirely fair, since it had been Shampoo who claimed it, and Cologne who hit her upside the head so hard it knocked her out and left a dent in the table.

Still, none of her tracking or scrying magic, most of which he'd been quite fine not knowing about, thank you very much, had turned up hide nor hair of the Saotome matriarch. Other than in her hairbrush, but that was hardly helpful. Even the old man had been gone for days, and he looked like he hadn't slept for most of them when he'd come across him in Chiba the day before.

Now, he was in the tenth district of the Minato ward, holding a cryptic letter that told him that his mother would meet him in an apartment there. Checking the number of the building he was standing in front of, he nodded shortly, shoving the paper into a pocket.

HR.

Ami Mizuno really, really wanted to reach for the Mercury Computer. She knew she shouldn't, but it had the largest technical and encyclopedic database she'd ever seen, and the biology homework she was doing now was fascinating. She'd gone over the entire chapter in her textbook, but she knew that it'd be impractical to go out to the library at 8:30 at night to get more reading material. Unfortunately, she knew that reading up on the information in the computer was a bad idea. Not only would she likely get so engrossed in the articles that she would forget to do the rest of her work until midnight, ending up with almost Usagi-esque hand writing, but the one time she'd accidentally quoted Silver Millennium findings in an astronomy assignment, she'd gotten a much lower grade because the stars had shifted so much over the last 10,000 years.

She caught herself as her hand crept towards the computer once again, and sighed, putting down her pencil. Her mother would be home in about half an hour, and she was usually rather irritated when the blue haired girl missed meals. She would pick up on her studying afterward, hopefully with a little more self-restraint.

Standing from her study desk, Ami thought about what to eat, but eventually decided on yet another cup of instant ramen. She was half way through deciding between chicken and beef, and was halfway across the apartment's small living room when a loud knock came at the door. The teenage girl jumped, wondering if someone was shooting at her, before the knock came again. She frowned, asking herself who would be so insistent to talk to her or her mother at this time of night, and wondering if it was one of the woman's patients' parents. Quickly moving to the door, she pulled it open, smiling. "Hell... oh."

The boy in front of her was one of the angriest people she'd ever seen. This was saying something, as she'd seen Youma, angry parents, and Rei within the same short time span. "Where is she?" the boy demanded, shortly.

Ami gulped. She was relatively sure that if she didn't answer his question correctly, something really bad was going to happen. "Um, m... my mother will be home in about half an hour," she offered, hopefully.

The boy glared. That had obviously not been what he wanted to hear, but he didn't do anything to Ami, instead reaching into a pocket and producing a Polaroid snapshot of himself, looking much less murderous, standing between a short, balding man in a white fighting gi and a regal looking woman in a formal kimono. "Where is she?" he repeated.

"Sir, I... I'm afraid you've got the wrong apartment," Ami started, uncertainly. "No one who looks like that lives here... or even near here, that I've seen."

The boy didn't say anything this time, just removing yet another thing from a pocket. At first, the blue haired girl thought it was a wadded up chocolate bar wrapper, but when she unfolded it she saw a neatly scribed note. "Ranma, if you wish to know what happened to your mother, please visit..." the address matched her apartment's. She suddenly realized why he was so angry. If it had been her, she probably would have changed into Sailor Mercury and kicked down some doors, with or without the others' help. "Someone must have played a prank on you, and not a very funny one," she explained shortly. "I really haven't seen her."

The boy lost some of his tension, but not much. "Ya mind if I look around?" he asked, though she was pretty sure it wasn't a request.

Even so, she nodded, stepping back from the door and letting him enter the room. The gaze he swept around it reminded her of Luna when she thought no one was looking and she was stalking mice. Abruptly, he started forward, his eyes locked on her room. Ami considered stopping him, but doubted she could without transforming, given how determined his stride was.

Opening her door, he entered, approaching her desk and bending over the Mercury Computer, which was vibrating and beeping loudly. The Senshi of Mercury flinched as he opened the little palmtop up, peering into the screen. He squinted at it, before handing it to her.

"Oh, sorry, this is just my Gameboy, I was playing with it before you came in!" she said, quickly, hoping he'd assume that it was a new model or something and leave it at that. She was studying the readout, noting that it was reporting a very unusual energy source nearby, when the boy hummed noncommittally, walking around to peer over her shoulder.

"A video game with an accurate anatomical chart... of me... with Chi pathways?" he asked, a scowl on his lips. "That's some gameboy."

Ami winced, mentally kicking herself for calling up the detailed view while he could still see it, even if she was rather surprised that he could identify it. "I... don't know what you're talking about," she tried. "This is just the new Megaman game."

She was horrible at lying, and knew that the boy didn't believe her, as he was still looking at her suspiciously. Fortunately, he was distracted by the sound of the front door opening. She was startled at the speed he displayed as he turned, taking up what sort of looked like a martial stance facing her mother, and another person, who looked suspiciously like a much younger version of the woman in the picture earlier.

"Mom!" He blurred forward, out of the stance, across the living room and past Ami's mother so fast that the dark haired woman had to brace herself against the door frame, grabbing the auburn haired one in a hug that looked like it could crush bones. A second later, he stopped, backed up, and looked down into the eyes of a girl roughly his own age. "You've got to be kidding me..."

"I told you he would still recognize me," the girl pronounced, self-assuredly.

"All right, I lost the bet," Ami's mother replied, amicably.

HR.

"Well, that went well," Saeko Mizuno said, as she, her daughter, Nodoka and Ranma Saotome sat around the apartment's small coffee table, cups of tea set before each of them. The young martial artist looked as though he needed his, almost jumping in place.

"So..." Ami said, slowly nursing her own cup. "You're his stepmother?" She was trying to be polite, even if she found the idea of a man marrying a woman his son's age to be distasteful at best.

"Not exactly, Ami-chan," Mrs. Mizuno said, taking a sip of her tea. "For now, let's just say she's older than she looks."

Ami nodded slowly, deciding for the moment to let things slide, and hope her computer was still taking scans.

"Look, um, sorry for bein' so nuts earlier," Ranma muttered, looking down into his cup. "'S just that I didn't expect anyone to go after Mom. Akane or the others, yeah, but..."

"That's all right, Saotome-san," Ami nodded across the table to the pigtailed martial artist. "I understand."

"Wow, No-chan," the older Mizuno said, causing her daughter's eyes to widen. "He's really much more polite than you were."

Nodoka blushed slightly. "Well, I didn't say it was a perfect emulation," she justified.

"A what?" Ranma asked, confused, while Ami looked intrigued.

"It's... a very long story," the auburn haired girl returned, before taking a sip of her tea. Just as she suspected that her son was going to burst at the seams, she continued, "It starts off with my informing you, Ranma, and you, Ami, that you have a new sibling. Or, well... not really a new one, but..." She stopped, looking confused.

Saeko sighed. "Ami, Ranma, you're brother and sister," she clarified, wishing that Nodoka was a little less prone to beating around the bush.

Ranma did a little bit of quick thinking. He was obviously related to his mother. If nothing else, his cursed form's bright red hair proved that much, and Ami's blue hair was obviously from her own mother, which meant... "The ol' bastard..." he growled, half way out of his seat before his mother put up a hand.

"Genma didn't cheat on me," she clarified. "I sort of, accidentally, cheated on him."

"Sort of accidentally?" the words were spat out in an incredulous tone before Ranma could stop himself. "Then who's my father?"

"Genma is your father," Nodoka said, assuredly.

Amy looked on, confused, as did Ranma for a few moments, until his brain seemed to click through a train of thought, the look on his face changing from unsure, to concerned, to shocked in about five seconds. "You... what?" he sputtered, clearly unable to articulate what he was thinking.

"Seems he's a lot smarter than you acted, too." Saeko said, causing Nodoka's eyebrow to twitch.

"Excuse me..." Ami said, her voice starting out quiet, "But could someone tell me what in the world is going on here?"

"Well, Ami..." Nodoka started, reluctantly.

The blue haired girl's mother sighed, as the redhead next to her hemmed and hawed. Picking up a small glass of water from a tray at the center of the table, she dumped it over Nodoka's head. "This is your father."

Ami fainted. Ranma's reaction was much more measured. "Damn it, why is it I'm only right about the really bad stuff?"

HR.

"Well," Ranma leaned back in his rather comfortable chair, holding the cold remnants of his cup of tea. "At least you didn't piss off the Amazons," he muttered, surprised that he was saying something like that to his mother, and she was looking sheepish about it. "Wait, you didn't, right?"

Nodoka nodded. "I left them on rather good terms, actually."

Ranma rubbed his forehead, as Dr. Mizuno came back into the room from her daughter's bedroom. The boy looked nervously at her, not terribly sure how to treat her or react around her. Technically, she was his mother's... what, mistress? Girlfriend? She'd always been pretty accepting of him having those, but he'd never considered it, and certainly never considered her doing it. And her explanation... "I'm going to kill Mousse," he growled, mostly for something to say.

"Well, I've got to return this to the Amazons, first," Nodoka responded, reaching into a pocket, and the fact that she didn't object to the threat of murder sort of unsettled her son. Leaning forward, he caught a look at a small silver amulet with gold inlays of various Chinese symbols around the edges and a gem in the center, a Romaji letter P with a line on the bottom glowing inside of it.

Having gotten past all of the questions he'd needed to ask, and noting that the auburn haired girl before him was looking at him expectantly, the pigtailed boy closed his eyes in thought. "Um," he continued after a few moments, "How're you gunna tell the old man about this?"

Nodoka just froze, her expectant look fading before being replaced with a consternated one. "Damn," she muttered.

"Young ladies really shouldn't use language like that," he said in a near tone-perfect imitation of a rebuke Auntie Nodoka had given Ranko several times.

Mrs. Mizuno snickered, while Nodoka pouted.

HR.

When her eyes shot open, Ami Mizuno was surprised that she wasn't in a cold sweat. Granted, her dream hadn't been scary, exactly, but it had definitely been surprising. Turning her head, she saw that it was still dark out the window, the only light that filtered in being that of the streetlights below.

On her computer, which she'd left open at her bedside the night before for some reason, the current time shone out at her, informing her that it was far too early for her to be awake. She was about to roll over and try to go back to sleep, when she noted the diagram of a male figure with "Unknown Energy Reading" written across it, still visible in the middle of the screen.

She shot up and grabbed the device immediately, realizing that the same reading had been part of her dream, and was in fact showing the exact same graph. Putting it down, she swung out of bed, realizing that she was still in her clothes from the day before. Tiptoeing out of the room and into the living room, she saw two forms, one on the couch, and the other curled up in the middle of the floor.

Slowly, the blue haired girl crept towards the darkened lumps, wishing to confirm or assuage her fears, but not wishing to wake them, if they were humans rather than large traveling bags, or something. She was abruptly assured of that fact, when the lump on the floor lashed out an arm, grabbing her by one leg and yanking.

"Nngh!" she articulated, the end result of swallowing a scream as a set of blue eyes met hers, and she realized that she'd been caught before hitting the floor.

"Oh, Ami, right? Sorry 'bout that," the owner of the eyes whispered, letting her roll onto her back. "I'm always sorta jumpy the first night in a new place."

"That's all right," the Senshi of Mercury said, relieved that the other could, probably, not have seen the panicked look on her face when she first fell. Staring into the ceiling, or rather, the darkness where it was, she muttered, "Last night wasn't a dream, was it?"

The sigh she heard in return was far more world weary than any eighteen year old had a right to be. "Afraid not," he responded.

"But... how?" she finally decided to say, after a few more seconds of silence.

"Like Mom said, it's a long story," Ranma replied. "Mom's rolling around a bit too much; ya mind if I try and explain it somewhere we won't disturb people?" What he actually meant, of course, was somewhere her outraged or disbelieving exclamations wouldn't be heard, but for once, he had the common sense not to say it.

The blue haired girl considered. On the one hand, the request the boy she'd never met before had just made was so suspicious even Usagi would have noticed, but she did have her transformation pen in her pocket, along with her Senshi communicator. "All right," she finally said, climbing to her feet and heading for the entry alcove to get her shoes.

It was only a few minutes later that the two of them were walking down the eerily quiet street, and Ranma was looking up at the lights as they passed beneath them. Ami would have made some attempt to get him to start speaking, however she was instead taking the opportunity to observe him. He was, as Usagi would say, a major hunk, but that only impinged on her brain for a second before she categorized it and moved on. He moved much like Rei did when she was working at the shrine, even though his mind was obviously on something completely different.

"Right," he finally said, nodding. "I'm probably gunna screw this up, so try 'n let me explain before killing me, okay?"

Ami nodded slowly, obviously confused.

"The first question's kinda weird, but since you've seen Mom change, and I'm guessin' that 'gameboy' of yours is a bit more than you're telling me, I'm sorta hoping you already know something about magic," Ranma began.

Ami thought for a moment, before nodding. Admitting that she thought magic existed was hardly going to blow her cover as a Senshi, and it was already pretty obvious, given what had happened so far today.

Ranma returned the nod, glad that he wasn't going to have to go through the usual song and dance that came along with someone who didn't believe magic was real, even when they were exposed to it. Of course, now he had to deal with explaining time travel, and even he didn't really know what was going on there. "About a week ago, someone who thought they were attacking me got my mom with a magical time travel artifact. I'm also guessing he used a good amount of ancient Amazon drugs that can make ya think the sky's plaid if ya take enough of 'em, and at least one mushroom that can change your age."

"Amazon drugs?" Ami asked, curious. "As in the warrior women from ancient Greek legends?"

"Nah," Ranma shook his head. "The old ghoul says the name's a bad translation, but it's a lot shorter than 'People from the ancient village of strong woman warriors.'"

"Ah," Ami said, and when she didn't say anything more, he decided to continue.

"Well, apparently something screwed up Mom's head pretty bad because when she recovered, she thought she was me."

"She... How could she do that? You're male..." Ami trailed off, suddenly recalling the transformation she'd seen only hours earlier.

"Well, If I were going to guess, Mousse was probably cursing me out the whole time." The pigtailed martial artist looked uncomfortable. "As for being a guy," he stepped over to the edge of the sidewalk, kicking off one of his shoes, which Ami only now realized was actually a soft slipper, and dunking a foot into a large puddle that had been left by a sudden, unpredicted and quickly passing storm the day before. Abruptly, his form twisted in on itself, seeming to do the reverse of what she'd seen earlier, until a short redhead stood in his place, adjusting the drawstring on her pants.

"I see." The statement was perfectly deadpan, and the eyes of the person who said it were very, very flat. This was strange; even her own mind thought so. After all, she'd seen perfectly normal looking people morph into demons with pop-off heads or gills, but it also reinforced the shock she'd had earlier, and then, she knew, she hadn't sensed, nor had her computer detected, any dark energy at all.

The redhead leaned in close to Ami's face, staring into her eyes. "You aren't gunna faint again, are you?" she asked, worriedly.

"Oh, no. I'm fine," Ami lied.

Ranma decided not to call her on it, and pressed on. "Yeah, well, she thought she was locked in female form. That's why she's got the curse now, she was trying to fix it."

"But, um, what does it have to do with me, and your mother and mine..." Ami's brain sort of ground to a halt on the last statement, and Ranma couldn't really blame her.

"The thing about Mom is that she doesn't really know me that well. We only actually met about half a year ago after I went on a really long martial arts training trip, and she's got some… ideas about me," Ranma explained.

"Ideas?" the blue haired girl asked, even though it felt like she was charging towards a bottomless pit.

"Yeah, she wants me to be really manly, and sorta thinks I am."

"So... what, you prefer to be a girl?" Ami asked.

"No! I'm a guy!" the redhead said, quickly, "It's just Mom thinks of manly men dating lots of pretty girls and having mistresses..." she shrugged helplessly, obviously not really understanding what she was describing.

"So... your mother," Ami started, slowly. "Seduced my mother, while she thought she was you, because she thought it was manly?"

"That's pretty much it, yeah." Ranma responded.

Ami Mizuno was usually a very polite girl. It had taken her so long to make friends mostly because she was simply too shy to try it on her own, and most students avoided her due to her intelligence and seeming standoffishness. However, even she had her limits. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" she burst out, her head turned up to the sky.

"Yeah, but it don't stop it from being true," the martial artist returned, casually.

The blue haired girl slumped, her entire frame looking exhausted. "I know." she muttered, quietly.

END.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2. Hello Mother, Hello Father.

"Ami? You're awake?" The blue haired girl didn't look away from the screen of the Mercury Computer as she heard her mother's surprised voice.

"Couldn't sleep," she muttered, cycling through several pages of readouts.

"What exactly are you doing?" Now Mrs. Mizuno's voice sounded somewhat worried, as her shadow fell across the kitchen table.

"Trying to match the energy signatures my computer recorded last night against any previously recorded phenomena," the senshi rattled off the answer without really thinking about it, before her rather sleep deprived and surprise addled brain caught up to the situation. Immediately, she slammed a finger down on the power button so hard she felt something twinge, and closed the Mercury Computer's top with a snap.

"I don't recall ever giving you enough money to purchase a palmtop," Mrs. Mizuno now had her arms crossed, looking quizzically down at her daughter. "And I've never seen one capable of that sort of graphical interface, either."

"Ahehehe…" Ami laughed, nervously. Her mother had been the second person in the past day to get a good look at the tiny piece of Silver Millennium technology, and unfortunately, unlike Ranma she knew what she was looking at. "Um, it's experimental, I got it from school for testing…"

Her mother sighed, "Ami, you really aren't a very good liar." Ami winced. "But we're going to have to talk about… this," she gestured at the blue case still held in her daughter's hand, "some other time."

Ami sighed in relief, before following her mother's gaze to the two people who were sleeping in the living room. For a moment she wondered if revealing everything about the Senshi would be easier to deal with, as Ranma rolled over, muttering something about a stupid panda. When he rolled off of the blanket he'd been sleeping on, bumping against the leg of the coffee table, his eyes shot open and he looked around in confusion.

Catching sight of the two Mizunos, he let his head fall back with a thud, missing the pillow and bouncing off of the floor. "Oh, right, that." Realizing what he'd sounded like after a few seconds, he muttered "G'mornin," and started getting up, packing away his blanket. "So, Mom's not awake yet?" he asked, taking note of the sun's position out the window.

"Well, she had a… stressful… day yesterday," Mrs. Mizuno responded, obviously trying to be diplomatic.

"Why, what time is it?" Ami asked, before taking a quick look at the microwave and yelping as if she'd just put her hand on the stove. "It's eight twenty!" she yelled, surprised, before charging out of the living room and into her bedroom. Unknowingly emulating Usagi, she began muttering "I'm going to be late" as she grabbed a clean set of school clothes from her dresser, only stopped by her mother clearing her throat.

"Ami, I'm going to call you in sick this morning," the older woman explained, stopping her daughter in her tracks.

"What?" Ami asked, confused, her sailor top half unfolded in her hands, "But I'm feeling fine."

Mrs. Mizuno sighed. "Nodoka and I were talking yesterday," she explained. "We decided that it would be best to take care of all of the shocks at once, and make sure there won't be any… misunderstandings. If what Nodoka says about some of her son's friends is true, misunderstandings would be bad."

From the other room, Ranma could be heard. "Damn, never thought of that. Ami's pretty young, but…"

"Pretty young for what?" Ami asked, replacing her uniform in the dresser and poking her head out of the door.

Ranma winced. "It's a long story, but let's just say havin' stuff explained quick is probably the best way." Both Mizunos nodded cautiously. "Can I use the phone?"

HR.

Kasumi Tendo turned back from the door, lowering her arm from the wave that had sent her younger sisters off to school. Akane, as usual, had been talking about Ranma, though it was rather unusual for Nabiki to be home so late. Heading towards the kitchen, the eldest Tendo daughter wondered if that had anything to do with Auntie Nodoka's disappearance, and her son and husband's attempts to find her.

She was jolted out of her musings as the phone in the front hall let out a loud ring. She turned back, passing her father who was sitting and gazing out at the Koi pond, to pick it up. "Hello?"

"Hey, Kasumi." It was Ranma's voice, and she couldn't hear the sound of traffic and wind around him that indicated a pay phone.

"Oh, Ranma-kun," She responded, noting a blur of motion from the corner of her eye as her father shot up and moved closer to her.

"Are Akane and Nabiki still there?" Ranma asked, sounding worried.

She blinked. "No, they just left for school a few minutes ago."

She became even more confused at his next words. "That's good. Could ya do me a favor? I need ya to get in touch with the ol' ghoul, and tell Pop to come home when he phones in. I found Mom, but things got kinda weird."

"I… can do that," Kasumi said, slowly. "Is she all right?"

"Uh… depends on what ya mean by that," Ranma replied, and then continued hurriedly, "She's healthy, but stuff happened, and… it's hard to explain."

"I see," the brown haired girl suppressed several questions that wanted to burst out, focussing on what was important. "Will you be home for lunch?"

"Yeah, I think so, just get Cologne and our Dads there, all right? Don't tell anyone else," Ranma was being quite emphatic.

"I understand," Kasumi said, starting to get a little worried.

Ranma sighed in relief. "Thanks Kasumi," he said, before hanging up. She did likewise, and had to suppress a slight jump as she remembered that her father was standing next to her.

"Did he find anything, Kasumi-chan?"

"Ranma found Auntie," she replied. "She's well, but he seemed to think there was something else wrong."

The tall man pondered that for a moment. "Well, as long as she's safe, I'm sure the boy can handle whatever else is happening."

"I'm sure he can, Father," Kasumi replied while typing in the Neko-Hanten's phone number.

HR.

"How many patches can a single wall have?" Ami heard her mother mutter quietly, as their small car carefully turned down one of the Nerima district's narrow streets. Privately, she agreed. The district's architecture bore many visible scars of slightly off-color stone or wood. Next to her, she heard Ranma shifting uncomfortably. He'd been doing that a lot, as it seemed he wasn't used to cars, but this time when she turned to look at him he was looking slightly embarrassed.

"Go left here and follow the road next to the canal," he said, trying to change the subject for some reason. Ami's mother nodded, and the car turned to go down the new path, where the blue haired girl noticed the top of the fence looked more patched together than all of the other walls put together, and there was a large, orange and black sign that proclaimed "Do not walk on this fence!" with a little doodle of a head with a pigtail below it.

Ami shrugged, trying to dismiss the doodle's strange resemblance to Ranma, when her mother yelped in surprise and hit the breaks. She jerked forward in her seat, her head whipping around to look out the front window, just in time to see an ancient gnome bound off of the hood of the car, a large bag of… something… over his shoulder.

"Goddamned ol' pervert…" Ranma growled, reaching for the handle to open his door.

"Ranma!" Nodoka snapped. The pigtailed boy froze, seemingly thinking for a moment, before slumping down in his seat.

"What… what was that?" Ami's mother asked.

"Trust me, ya don't wanna know," Ranma replied. "Let's just go."" Ami leaned sideways to hear as he muttered something else that sounded like 'At least he won't be there.'

The older woman nodded and the car started forward again, making it another block and a half before stopping in front of a large wooden gate in a stone wall. "To challenge the owner in savage combat?" Ami asked, reading the wooden sign that hung next to the gate.

Ranma shrugged, releasing his seatbelt and pulling open his door. "Nobody ever pays attention to that sign."

Nodoka and Ami's mother were already out of the car, approaching the gate. "Um, I think maybe I should go in first," Ranma offered. "In case some unexpected people showed up, or the ol' man goes nuts, or somethin'."

Nodoka frowned, crossing her arms, and for just a second Ami could see that inexplicable quality of motherliness in her, despite her physical age. "You really shouldn't talk like that about your father," she rebuked.

"Maybe," Ranma replied, "but I'm not sure if he'll recognize you, and if he doesn't, he might do somethin' stupid." Ami thought Nodoka was going to object again, but she didn't, simply nodding and stepping back.

Ranma walked forward, pulling open one of the large doors and stepping into a well kept front yard, a surprisingly large traditionally built house in the center of it with a smaller, blocky outbuilding off to one side. "We're back!" Ranma called, and braced for something.

What he was bracing for was made rather evident a moment later as the front door to the house was flung open by a giant… panda? The black and white bear barreled towards the pigtailed martial artist, stopping only a few feet away from him and looking around. Apparently not finding what it was looking for, it growled menacingly at him.

"Jeez, ol' man, you couldn't even stay human?" Ranma asked irritably as an older, dark haired man came out the door the Panda had just used, followed by a pretty brown haired girl who was only a bit older than Ranma, and…

"Youma!" Ami yelped, jumping backwards as the shriveled… thing… came out of the house, hopping along on a gnarled old walking stick, white hair cascading down its back.

Ranma immediately jumped back and into a defensive stance as well, strangely followed by the dark haired older man, the panda and Nodoka. "Where?" he asked, after looking around.

Ami's skin prickled in a fashion she had never really felt before, but she shrugged that off as best she could, and pointed shakily at the thing on the stick.

"Oh," Ranma noticeably relaxed and laughed. "Gotta say, that's a new one for the ol' ghoul. Mind if I use it?"

"That is not funny, sonny boy, fallen kami are dangerous," the creature growled.

"Actually, elder, there have been some monsters attacking the Minato ward that the news has been calling youma," the kind seeming brown haired girl cut in. "I think she thought you were one of them."

"Oh," the creature responded, irritably. "You are lucky that you aren't a martial artist, young lady."

Ami nodded, confused, but willing for the moment to rely on the fact that both Ranma and Nodoka seemed comfortable around both the stick-bound figure and the giant panda, who ignored by everyone else had been getting more and more agitated.

"Where is she, boy?!" read a sign that the animal seemed to pull out of nowhere.

"Damnit, Pops, you really shoulda changed back first." He sighed and stepped back next to Nodoka. "Recognize her?"

The panda studied the girl for several seconds, then its eyes bulged. "Nodoka?" Its next sign asked, in a shaky scrawl.

"Yes, husband," the auburn haired girl confirmed, looking nervous.

"That is your husband?" Ami blurted, noting that events had been getting to her far too much lately.

The panda was trying to decide what to do, what questions to ask, but was clearly having a hard time as there was a steadily growing pile of signs behind him, all with partial sentences. Abruptly, he made a gesture as though to pull out another sign board, frowned at his empty paw, and growffed at the long haired girl.

"I'll go get you some hot water Uncle Genma," the girl said, smiling gently and turning to enter the house. Suddenly, things started to make a twisted sort of sense. Hot water was the method Ranma used to reverse his transformation into a girl, which meant that his father turned into a panda… at least she was relatively sure that was how it worked.

"You look rather lost, child," it was the voice of the 'ol ghoul,' who had apparently moved around to balance on her stick next to Ami. The girl resisted the urge to jump, or to pull her transformation pen.

"Nodoka thought that we should try to prepare her," her mother explained, "but I wasn't sure how to do so, honored Elder."

"Ah, Saeko-chan, it's good to see you again," the elder responded. "And your daughter, she's looking quite strong and healthy." She looked wistful. "You would have made fine Amazons, you know."

"Mom, you know this You.. person?" Ami quickly corrected, blushing.

The elder sighed. "Almost as disrespectful as your brother, but at least you're making an effort. Yes, I have known your mother since before you were born, though we don't speak often."

"When Nodoka managed to go back home, we were deep in the Chinese wilderness," Ami's mother explained. "The artifact that had sent her back in time was an Amazon treasure, so we had to ask them how to use it."

Ami nodded, though she didn't really understand it. Before this, the only weirdness in her life had been her career as a magical girl which, she had to admit, was pretty weird. Her mother had seemed like a normal, if workaholic, pediatrician. Now, she found out that the woman had adventured deep in the Chinese jungle and to a village of warrior women.

"Ah, thank you for reminding me of that artifact," the elder said, and hopped over to where Nodoka was standing, apparently still staring at the Panda, who was staring back. The auburn haired girl was obviously agitated, while the animal was deep in thought. pretty much everyone jumped when the old woman somehow lashed out with her staff, smacking Nodoka over the head with it and got it back under herself before she could fall.

"Ol' ghoul…" Ranma growled, followed by an angry growf from the panda.

"That was for reciting the invocation verse for that amulet of yours like a damned fool and leaving your pregnant companion alone in the village," Cologne said, seriously. "Now, fulfill your word."

Nodoka winced, rubbing the side of her head with one hand, but fished around in the purse she had slung over one shoulder with the other, producing a small round metallic object. "I didn't know about Ami-chan when I left, Elder."

"That does not matter," the elder responded, plucking the item up and tucking it into her robes. "Amazon law is clear on this point. a male who impregnates a woman in Amazon lands and leaves her is considered to have committed a terrible crime. He is to return and be with the woman, if she wishes it, within the time allotted or be killed."

"...wha…" Nodoka's mouth was open in shock as the elder dropped to the ground, her staff pointed at the younger woman's chest.

"The time is long since elapsed."

HR.

An ear-splitting roar shattered the silence that the Tendo yard had fallen into, before a barrelling mass of fur, teeth and claws flew towards Cologne. Her surprise lasted for only a fraction of a second, before she leapt out of the path of the charging panda. She was turning to track its path when something impacted against her back hard, sending her flying into, and then through, the yard's outer wall. She'd curled up to absorb the impact, but her head was reeling with confusion until she managed to skid to a halt on the street outside of the Tendo compound.

She looked around rapidly, only to see Genma's panda form vaulting over the wall, his claws suddenly spreading out wide to either side of his body. She only just barely got out of the way of the vacuum blade which sliced a fair sized chunk out of the street and a compact car that was parked nearby.

The Amazonian matriarch cursed under her breath. She hadn't expected the panda to attack at all, but unsealing the Yama-senken was… She shook her head. Perhaps she should have thought through her little joke a bit more, but she'd been preparing it ever since the disrespectful little cursed brat with the mangled memories had spontaneously left the village more than fourteen years ago. "Genma Saotome, I…" she started, when her danger sense screamed at her and she turned, Ranma seeming to materialize out of nothingness, the Amaguriken running at full power. Of course, where there was the Yama, there was the Umi.

She could counter the Amaguriken, one of her tribe's own techniques, even from someone as good as Ranma. In order to move that fast one had to fall into at least somewhat predictable patterns, and having trained him, she knew all of his. The problem was that stopping him would keep her immobile, and she was fighting two opponents here, not one. She winced as what she was expecting occurred, a panda roar that desperately wanted to be an attack call, and she felt several piercing pains in her back. Abruptly, her Amaguriken failed as the chi flows to her arms seemed to fade away. Several powerful blows crashed into her chest, and she flew backwards, scraping across the pavement for about four meters.

She surveyed her condition. A great deal of her concentration was being devoted to keeping her chi moving through her body despite the near-debilitating strike she'd just been hit with, as at her advanced age she would likely die if it stopped, but she was confident that she could get back up and continue fighting. Winning, on the other hand, was probably not going to happen. Sighing, she let her head fall to the street and waited until Ranma's face appeared in her field of vision, glaring down at her.

"Believe it or not, sonny boy, I was only kidding." He crossed his arms, his glare not diminishing in the least. There was an equally annoyed panda growl behind him. "I was only planning to scare the girl," she continued. "I wasn't really thinking about how you and your father reacted when she went missing… the problem with planning something like this for more than a decade, I suppose."

"The scary thing is I can believe you'd do somethin' like that," Ranma grumbled.

Cologne nodded, hauling herself to her feet. Her pride as an Amazon burned in the back of her mind, desperately wishing to put the outsiders in their places. Of course, she'd managed to live for nearly three hundred years by knowing when to ignore that little voice, and given she had to admit that this time, she'd been the one to screw up in a slightly delicate situation, doing so was quite easy.

"Um, Elder?" She looked up to see Kasumi Tendo standing in front of her, a kettle in one hand, and her staff in the other. "Thank you, Kasumi." She took the staff as the panda took the water, and decided that for the moment she would much rather use it as support than jump around on it.

HR.

Luna lay on a tree branch, basking in the sun, her tail swishing gently below her as she relaxed, erm, carefully watched Usagi's school for dark kingdom activity. She was jolted out of her reverie when a voice called up to her. "Luna, stop catnapping and get down here!"

The black furred mooncat gave an irritable, disdainful look that only cats could pull off down at the blonde haired girl who was standing on the grass below her, but upon seeing the worried look on Usagi's face, she clambered out of the tree. "What is it Usagi, trouble?"

"I'm not sure," the blonde replied, worriedly. "Ami didn't show up for classes this morning."

"Well, perhaps she's sick," Luna offered.

"Ami? She'd probably come in even if she was dying. The girl doesn't know the benefits of a good sick day."

Luna sniffed. "Some people have an actual work ethic… but you do have a point. Have you tried her communicator?"

Usagi nodded. "Yeah, and she isn't answering."

"Hmm…" Luna put a paw up to her chin. "I don't think you have enough time before lunch ends, and you are not skipping school. I will check Ami's apartment and make sure she's all right."

"Thanks Luna," the blonde said, trying to conceal her disappointment that she'd lost an excuse to skip school.

HR.

"My car…" Ami's mother grumbled into her cup of tea, as she sat at the Tendo family's dining table. Ami herself wasn't really sure what to say. True, Ranma had seemed rather graceful and a little strange, but she hadn't expected him to start pulling moves straight out of some of the Shonen manga Rei hid under her bed. The panda doing the same thing was just the icing on the cake, though afterward, she hadn't been terribly surprised when he'd turned himself into a man with a kettle of hot water.

"So," the elder who called herself Cologne spoke up, from where she was resting against several piled up cushions. "Now that the inevitable pointless misunderstanding fight is out of the way, perhaps we should offer some explanations."

"That would be appreciated, Elder," the dark haired man who had introduced himself as Soun Tendo, after grabbing Ami and her mother in order to drag them into the house when the previous fight had started, replied. "While I've gathered that one of these young ladies is apparently Nodoka, suffering from some form of magic, I hope that the other isn't yet another of Ranma's fiancees."

"Fiancees, plural?" Ami's mother asked, taking her eyes off of the hole in the yard wall, and the wrecked vehicle that was currently being moved by road safety workers.

"She ain't a fiancee," Ranma growled. "She's my sister."

Genma's face immediately went white. "No, I didn't do that! I would've remembered! ...probably."

From where she was sitting, Nodoka groaned and rubbed her forehead. "She isn't yours, husband," she said, reluctantly.

Genma blinked and then shot to his feet, the table saved from toppling only due to a quick movement by Kasumi. "What?" he demanded. "Nodoka! How could…" He stopped halfway through his rant, his mouth open. "Wait, how could you? She's fourteen, and… I definitely would have known if you were pregnant, we saw each other every day before I left on the training trip."

"I'm… actually kinda surprised you figured that out," Ranma remarked, receiving a glare from his father that slid off of him like water off a duck's back. "Um, ol' man, maybe I should talk ta you about this in private."

Genma crossed his arms and hmphed. "Would you stop pussyfooting your way around this and tell me what's going on?" He growled, glaring at Ranma, and then turning the look to his rejuvenated wife.

"One of Ranma's friends ambushed me instead of him by accident and drugged me in such a way that I thought I was Ranma and reduced to around his age. He then banished me using an ancient Amazon artifact that actually threw me many years back in time where, still thinking I was Ranma, I met up with Saeko-chan. I thought I was locked in my cursed form and lost, so after some convincing, she helped me go to China and… unlock myself." At this point, Genma's face was getting paler and paler, but Nodoka kept going. "My memory started returning when I gained the curse, but it was slow, and only really fixed when I visited the Amazon tribe. Before that, I…" She blushed, and turned away, embarrassed.

"I…" Genma gulped. Hard.

"And that's why I wanted ta tell you in private," Ranma chipped in.

"Oh my," Kasumi whispered, though the room had become so silent that it seemed loud.

"I… see," Genma continued. "Boy?"

"Pop?" Ranma asked.

"Come with me. Dojo. Now."

"Right, pop," Ranma replied.

Genma stomped out of the room, not looking at anyone, as Nodoka began to sob. "It's gunna be all right, mom," Ranma said, resting a hand on her shoulder.

"BOY! DOJO!"

Ranma shrugged. "Think he's just gotta hit somethin'."

HR.

"Grah! Stand still and let me hit you!" Akane Tendo felt a strange sense of deja vu. The words were familiar, but the voice that was bellowing them was not. She looked at her older sister, but Nabiki just raised one shoulder in a half shrug as she pushed open the door to the Tendo compound.

"It came from the dojo," the brown haired girl said, tilting her head towards the structure in question. "Probably just another fight, and I'm too tired to care right now." Waving to Akane as she inevitably went to investigate, the older sister headed for the house.

Akane shook her head, knowing that Nabiki was probably right, but curious regardless. As she got closer to the dojo, she heard the sound of scuffling feet along with loud bangs. "Jeez, you're sloppier than the tomboy," Ranma's teasing voice came to her, and her left fist clenched spasmodically.

"Get back here, you little…" Now that the volume was a little lower, Akane could recognize the second voice as Genma. Just as she pulled the door open, there was a loud crash, and she saw the tail end of a pin, Ranma holding his father down.

"So, you calm yet?" the young martial artist asked, casually, though his red shirt was badly torn in several places and she could see bruises and scrapes running up both arms, a small stream of blood coming from his nose.

"How can I be calm about something like this?" Genma growled.

"Look, there's gotta be a reason you came out here ta punch things rather than yelling about it," Ranma replied.

"Oh, I don't know," Genma snapped angrily. "My wife cheated on me, and oh, by the way, her illegitimate child is sitting in the living room, by another woman, because now along with being the same age as my son she has the same damned curse!"

"Are you done?" Ranma asked.

Genma sighed. "For now." He stood up, dusting himself off. "Boy, could you do something for me?"

"Depends," Ranma replied. "I ain't marryin' Kuno."

"Not funny," Genma growled. "I need you to go get my pack. I need… to think."

"Ol' man, you're not…" Ranma started.

"If I don't, I'm going to do something I'll regret," Genma replied. "I know I'm not the greatest at thinking things through. God knows for the last few years you've been happy to let me know when I've done something stupid, and I know… this isn't really Nodoka's fault, but… I'm not asking you to go with me, boy. In fact, stay here, make sure your mother's all right, but I need to go."

"Damn it, old man…" Ranma muttered, before turning. He stopped dead as he saw Akane standing in the doorway, her eyes as big as saucers. "Akane…"

"I'm… just going to go in now," Akane decided, turning and slowly making her way towards the house. Her brain was trying to make sense of what she'd just heard. Of course, one good thing that she immediately latched onto was that Auntie Nodoka was back, at least she thought so, with the rest of what she'd heard, that might not be a terribly good thing.

HR.

"All right, so why are we here?" Rei Hino asked, taking in the apartment complex that she, Usagi and Luna stood in front of.

"I told you, Ami is missing," Luna replied. "We need to find her, and the only clues I could find were that her apartment was in some disarray and there was a large traveling pack in one corner."

"How did you get into her apartment?" the black haired priestess asked, curiously.

The moon cat gave a full body shudder. "Never mind that."

"We called you because your shrine maiden… thing might pick up some information," Usagi explained.

Rei's eyebrow twitched. "Shrine maiden thing?" She sighed. "Of course, without Ami around she thinks I'm a dowsing rod."

"So, can you pick anything up?" Rei glared into the blonde's expectant expression for a moment, before closing her eyes and beginning to concentrate. She highly doubted that she would find anything. Her extra senses were rather weak, and… She stopped dead, as something did impinge on her awareness.

"A lot of power passed by here…" she muttered. "Mostly human, but there's… something dark, but… I don't know what."

"See, I knew you could do it!" Usagi cheered, before her expression turned downcast. "But… that's really not good, is it?"

"Yeah," Rei nodded, deciding not to explain that what she'd just done was ridiculously unlikely. Usagi probably wouldn't get it anyways. "Something definitely went bad here."

"Can we track it?" Luna asked.

Rei closed her eyes again. "I think so, but I'm not sure how far I'll get."

"Right," Usagi nodded. "Let's go!"

END.

While trying to get into character as Luna, and using the DIC variant of her mental voice, Weebee also had her refer to the enemies as the "Dark Kingdom." He's now pretty sure he pulled something in his mind.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Titles are hard..

By the time she got to the front step, Akane had collected her thoughts… mostly. What she'd heard Genma say seemed incredible, but then she'd been kidnapped by a prince searching for his bride, turned into a doll, and almost eaten… multiple times, so she supposed thinking anything was impossible was kind of short sighted.

Pushing open the front door she called "I'm home!" before shucking her school shoes for house slippers. She recognized two of the voices that responded to her as Kasumi and her father, but the third was new. Turning at the end of the hall into the living room, she took in the situation. Nabiki was leaning against a wall, obviously unwilling to act until she had more information. For a moment Akane had to suppress a grin at knowing more than her nosy older sister. Kasumi, her father and elder Cologne sat around the low table with three newcomers.

"So, that's Mrs. Saotome," the blue-black haired girl found herself saying, gesturing to an auburn haired girl who sat next to Kasumi, wearing a somewhat baggy set of track clothes and looking only a year or two older than herself. "Where's the illegitimate child?"

"Akane!" She flinched. Kasumi very rarely snapped at her. Maybe she wasn't quite as recovered from what Mr. Saotome had said as she thought. Still, the question had gotten results, as a younger girl who looked a lot like Akane herself, but with lighter hair, raised her hand slightly.

The youngest Tendo winced, stepping around the table to where the girl sat with an older woman. "Um, I'm sorry about saying it that way." She bowed. "I think I've been hanging around the idiot too long. I'm Akane Tendo."

"Ranma's the idiot," Nabiki clarified from her place against the wall, though from years of experience, Akane could tell she was curious.

"It's all right," the girl replied. "It is technically accurate. My name is Ami Mizuno; it's nice to meet you."

Akane was slightly taken aback at the easy acceptance of what many would take as an insult, and just smiled while trying to think of something to say. She heard a soft thud from the area of the ceiling, noticing her father, Cologne and Nodoka tilt their heads at the sound. "So… why is there a bunch of car parts scattered in the street out front?" she quickly asked. This had the desired effect, as her father and Nodoka turned their heads towards her, and Cologne shifted slightly, almost as though she were embarrassed. Nabiki leaned in a bit, though the strangest reaction was the older woman next to Ami, who glanced out the side door and winced.

HR.

"What took you so long, boy?" Genma demanded as Ranma dropped down behind the dojo.

"I woulda been here faster if you hadn't decided to go hide," Ranma replied, dropping a bulging backpack on the ground.

The balding man harumphed. "If you couldn't find me, it means your stealth and detection obviously need more work."

"Yeah, yeah." Ranma shrugged. "I brought the backpack, and I could just call everyone out here, y'know."

Genma glared for a moment, before hefting the bag and letting out a slight surprised breath. "This is… a lot heavier than I was expecting."

"I figured I'd better give ya my supplies or I might find a bunch more engagements when you got back," the pigtailed boy explained, crossing his arms. The lopsided grin belied his attempt at humor.

"And I have a new daughter to pawn off…" Genma muttered, with a lopsided grin of his own.

Ranma twitched. "Just get the hell outta here before I change my mind."

The older man nodded, slipping the backpack over his shoulders and settling it into a comfortable position. As he turned towards the back wall, Ranma spoke again. "You'd better not take ten years this time, or I'm draggin' you home by the fur." Genma didn't respond, only vaulting over the wall and disappearing into the streets. Turning, Ranma headed back for the house.

As he approached the porch, he began hearing snatches of conversation. "It was really brave," Ami's mother was saying. "She challenged three men almost as tall as Mr. Tendo in order to protect me."

"And got beaten to a pulp," his mother's voice came to him.

"I thought you would mention the stab wound rather than the bruises," Mrs. Mizuno replied. "That's what kept you at my parents' house recovering for two months."

He stopped just outside of the doors, looking in to see his mother in a much better mood than she'd been in when he left, though she looked slightly embarrassed as Mrs. Mizuno chuckled at her. "You should have heard her," the older woman continued. "She kept saying that a martial artist must protect others' and insisting that she could walk it off in a couple of days."

"Ta be fair, I've gotten out of a body cast in less than a week before," he chimed in as he stepped into the room.

Mrs. Mizuno raised an eyebrow. "Clearly you had some over-zealous doctors."

"Actually, he'd broken both collar bones, his right ulna, his pelvis and left leg in three places, along with several severe contusions, incomplete fractures, and torn muscles," Kasumi chipped in. "The girls were rather peeved at him that time."

Ranma winced. Why the hell had he brought that up? Akane was giving him a dark look.

"And you healed from that in less than a week?" Ami asked, her fingers making a curious tapping gesture against the tabletop.

"Well, I could walk on 'em by then," Ranma replied evasively. Seeing that Akane was still glaring at him a little, he decided a change of subject was in order. "So what happened after that?" He asked. "Y'know, with mom and the thugs and all."

Nodoka shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I kept insisting I was you, and locked, and a much better fighter than I am…so she thought I was insane." She tilted her head for a moment. "Well, I suppose I was."

"But she went to China with you; how did you convince her of that?" Ami asked, curious.

"Well, I decided that the easiest way was to show her something supernatural," Nodoka explained, her accent seeming to get a little courser as she remembered. "I didn't know about much of the supernatural stuff Ranma had run into, so I only talked about it vaguely, but I had met that Kagane girl Gos was dating last Tanabata, and heard her story…" She trailed off.

"We ended up sneaking into Furinkan high one friday night," Mrs. Mizuno continued. "No-chan walked down the halls calling for this Kagane person, and I was just hoping that when this didn't work she'd accept the fact that she had a mental problem… but then the ghost showed up."

"Aw, crap…" Ranma rubbed his forehead. "This was from before we pacified her, wasn't it?"

Nodoka nodded, looking slightly embarrassed. "She chased us around the school with floating chairs and pencil spears all night until we smashed out the gym window to escape."

Mrs. Mizuno nodded, rubbing at the back of her neck as though remembering an old wound. "She'd known the ghost was there, and even known its name, the fact that it wasn't at rest even explained the time travel thing, so I started to believe."

"Y'know a ghost like Kagane could probably be faked," Nabiki observed.

Mrs. Mizuno shrugged. "I was 17, and almost wanted to believe. It didn't help that No-chan's flirting was actually starting to work, and I… well…"

Ami flushed bright red and hid her face behind her hands. Leaning over, Kasumi patted the younger girl on the back.

"Yes, well…" Nodoka responded, fidgeting slightly before coughing. "Ranma, where is your father?"

'Crap,' Ranma thought, clearing his throat. "The ol' man had to go clear his head for a while," he explained. "He's gone on a bit of a training trip."

"Typical," Nabiki snorted. "Things get weird and the old panda takes off. Not sure he's going to come back this time."

Nodoka opened her mouth but Ranma beat her to it. "He's coming back." The conviction surprised many people in the room, including Nodoka, who'd been about to question it herself. "He didn't want to say nothin' stupid. This is just… a lot to think about, for a lotta people," he explained, lamely.

The room descended into an awkward silence for a moment, before Kasumi spoke up. "Maybe I should get some food for everyone. Auntie," she inclined her head towards Nodoka. "Would you help me?"

"Of course, Kasumi-chan," Nodoka replied, following the taller girl as she exited the room.

HR.

"So," Nodoka said as she and Kasumi entered the kitchen, the small cloth curtain falling into place behind them. "What were you planning on cooking?"

"Since I was going to do it quickly, perhaps a salad?" the eldest Tendo sister suggested. Nodoka nodded, and Kasumi walked over to gather the supplies she needed out of the refrigerator. "I can wash them if you'll cut them."

As the two arranged themselves next to the sink, and Kasumi began passing washed veggies to Nodoka, she watched her carefully out of the corner of her eye. She was cutting the same way she always had, having apparently gotten used to the slightly different way she now moved, though she was also focussing more intently on the task than Kasumi thought was strictly necessary.

The two worked in companionable silence for almost a minute before Nodoka spoke. "Do you think Ranma is right?"

"Hmm?" Kasumi asked, curiously.

"About Genma coming back," Nodoka explained.

"I'm not sure, but Ranma-kun does know his father better than I do," Kasumi offered. "He seemed rather certain."

"Yes... "

"Is there something wrong?" Kasumi asked, the tone of what the auburn haired girl had just said worrying her.

"I was just thinking…" Nodoka started. "I got married to Genma right after high school, and we had Ranma almost immediately. After that, Genma was always wandering, even when Ranma was a baby. It's just occured to me that Ranma knows his father far better than I do. As Seiko pointed out yesterday… I don't really know either of them very well."

"Auntie, I'm sure you can…" Kasumi started, unsure where she was going but knowing that she needed to say something.

"Kasumi, Genma just ran off again, and I…" Nodoka slumped. "For the last day or so, Ranma's been taking care of ME."

"Ranma-kun cares about you very much," Kasumi hurriedly said. "So does Uncle Genma. Both of them were searching for the past week!"

"I know, I just… I know why Genma left. How could he care about me when this happens!" With that, Nodoka shoved her hand under the running tap, her body shifting and growing, the baggy clothing she wore filling out rapidly.

"Oh… oh my," Kasumi gasped, as she looked on what was revealed. Once, several months ago Nabiki had snidely observed that given both Ranma and Herb of the Musk's appearance, Jusenkyo should retitle the spring of drowned girl to that of the drowned supermodel. Looking at Nodoka's male form, she had to admit that the same may be true about the spring of the drowned man.

He was taller than his female form, almost as tall as she was with broad, muscular shoulders and sharp, refined features framed by hair that had changed from auburn to a deep brown. Kasumi just stood with her mouth open for several moments. Thankfully, she wasn't a Saotome so she'd managed to resist her first inclination to tell Nodoka that he looked very handsome. That likely wouldn't help at all. Of course, she did have to say something, as the steadily growing look of apprehension on Nodoka's face indicated. Scrambling through her memories of the conversation to try to regain her train of thought, she offered, "Well… uncle Genma has a curse too, you… um… don't have to be attracted to him as a panda in order to love him…"

"It's slightly more complicated than that," Nodoka replied, "But thank you for trying to help, Kasumi-chan."

"Uh… no problem," Kasumi replied, uncertain of why Nodoka seemed to be smiling.

HR.

"I can't believe this," Usagi whined. "We've gone into a completely different district, and you lost it?"

"I told you I wasn't very good at this," Rei grumbled. "I think we might be going the wrong way, too, but the trail in the other direction was a lot fainter and faded quickly."

"Well then, what do we do?" Usagi asked, her hands on her hips.

"We don't really have any other leads to go after," Luna replied. "You could ask around, but we've been walking so long that most of the places Ami would have visited would be closed by now."

"We might just have to give it up for the night," Rei offered. At the others' shocked expressions, she shrugged. "We're far enough out that it's going to be hard to get back before it gets dark, and, like Luna said, we won't be able to ask around until tomorrow anyways. I'd say we go home and start out again tomorrow, leave school on first break if Ami doesn't show up."

"But you're at a different school," Usagi protested.

"That would be what your communicator is for," Luna replied. "I think Rei might be right."

"Yeah…" Usagi sounded reluctant. "Ami, I hope you're all right… wherever you are."

HR.

Ami settled back in the train car, rather thankful that they hadn't had to go home at rush hour, and watched the Furinkan subway station fall away as the train started to move. Her mother sat next to her, and Ranma across from them. The older boy had volunteered to come along when Mr. Tendo had insisted that someone walk them home, as it'd gotten dark. None of them had said much as they walked, though she'd gotten the chance to get a closer look at some of the patched walls on their way to the station, and a surprising amount of the patches looked new. Well, it would have been surprising before, but after the fight she'd seen earlier in the day, it was starting to make a certain amount of sense.

"Um, Mizuno-san, Ami, I'm real sorry about the stuff that happened today," Ranma said, jolting Ami out of her thoughts. "I'd like ta say that sorta thing doesn't happen much, but, to tell the truth, today was pretty mild."

"It gets worse?" Ami's mother asked, worried.

"Well, um, the ol' ghoul isn't usually involved, but that was actually a pretty short fight," Ranma explained. "When me 'n Ryoga go at it, it usually lasts about half an hour and goes a couple blocks."

"Oh…" the older woman replied, faintly, causing Ranma to tug at his pigtail.

"No one gets hurt, usually,"

"Full body cast?" she replied.

Ranma winced. "That only happened a couple times and besides, I'm a martial artist. I can take it."

"Your mother said the same thing," her mother mentioned. "While she was bleeding on my floor."

Ranma winced again. "Yeah, well, when I get my hands on the duck for that little stunt…" Ami noted that his fingers were slightly deforming the metal of the pole he was gripping, and decided she wasn't going to ask about the duck, even though she wanted to. "Look, all I'm sayin' is I know how screwed up Nerima is, and I'm sorry 'bout your car, but it's not all that bad if you're not a martial artist… usually."

"I see…" Ami's mother nodded. "But perhaps you and Nodoka should visit us more often than we visit you."

"Might be a better idea if only Mom comes," Ranma shook his head. "There are a couple guys who want to beat me up… and a couple girls who wanna marry me, and..."

"You should definately come around," the older woman interrupted. "If your friends cause too much trouble we can figure something else out, but you and Ami should have the opportunity to get to know each other."

Ami thought for a moment. It was true that the things she'd seen today were… not normal by any stretch of the imagination, but Ranma seemed like a nice enough person, even if thinking about her father made something inside of her head want to snap. "Yes, it would be good to get to know you and… Nodoka-san," she eventually replied with a firm nod.

Ranma tried to hide it, at least she thought that's what his facial contortions were supposed to be, but he looked relieved. Had he brought up the situation entirely to see if they were frightened of the strangeness? Well, it was a legitimate concern, she supposed, and she wondered if she would have taken it as well as she had if she hadn't been a senshi. No, she eventually decided, in that case she'd probably be huddled in a fetal position right now jibbering about the laws of physics.

HR.

"Still wasting time on that, I see." Nephrite tried to ignore the annoying voice as he concentrated on his calculations and the starmap that surrounded him. "I don't see why you're so set on it; Jadeite's just going to ignore anything you find for his own schemes, and the queen won't let you out until his inevitable failure." His concentration slipped, and the construct around him collapsed.

Rising to his feet, he turned to glare at the blonde haired figure that stood in the doorway. "Do you want something, Zoisite?" he demanded.

"I just wanted to see what you were futilely wasting your time on, that's all," the other general replied.

"You aren't going to leave me alone unless I tell you, are you?" Nephrite growled.

"That's the general idea, yes," Zoisite confirmed.

"A strangely powerful human has entered the target area," the darker haired general replied. "I was trying to track them in hopes that I could get permission to seize their energy, or at the least point Jadeite at them."

"You wouldn't be angry if Jadeite took your glory?" Zoisite asked. "You never were all that upwardly mobile, were you?"

"I am simply attempting to fulfill our queen's wishes, as are you," Nephrite replied. "Besides, unless you plan to destroy the queen and ascend to her throne, there isn't much up left."

Zoisite snorted. "Such a small mind. Oh well, have fun with your little plan."

"Little pest…" Nephrite muttered, as the door closed behind the departing woman.

HR.

"Where have you been?!" Ami rocked back on her feet as Usagi confronted her during morning break.

"Mom called me in sick," the blue haired girl replied, somewhat nervous at the blonde's intent stare.

"And you didn't answer your communicator because…" Usagi was tapping her foot now, and as Ami watched, Luna appeared in the window giving her an accusatory glare.

She sighed. She hadn't taken her communicator for what to her seemed like a very good reason… until the fact that the other senshi could need her to defeat a Youma finally got past her sense of information overload, which had been mid-evening, sitting in the Tendo living room and making small talk with a girl who looked disturbingly like herself a few years in the future. "I was worried someone might hear it if it went off," She explained. "There were a lot of people around."

Usagi frowned. She recognized dodging around the truth when she heard it, as she was far better at it than Ami could hope to be, and she still sort of sucked at it. Of course, she also knew her mother's counter, and it helped that she had been genuinely worried. "We went to your apartment yesterday," she explained. "We know you weren't there, and Rei found this weird dark energy thing so we thought you'd been kidnapped! We spent hours searching for you after school!"

"Oh, um…" Ami looked down and scuffed her feet. "Can we talk about this later?"

"It is rather important," Ami blinked, surprised that Luna would speak to them when they were in school, even if they were at the end of a hall with no one else around. "If the dark kingdom had gotten to you while you didn't have your communicator…"

the blue haired girl slumped. "I'm sorry, I really am, it's just something big came up and I wasn't thinking."

"And what would be so important that you would forget about your responsibilities as a senshi?" Luna asked, giving her a look that clearly communicated her thought that she was supposed to be the responsible one.

"Well, um… I met my father yesterday," Ami decided that she should probably stick to the basics. "And found out I've got an older half brother. Things are rather complicated right now."

"You've got an older brother?" Usagi asked, her mood shifting from reproving to excited in half a second. "Is he nice? Is your older brother cute? Can I meet him? I bet someone from your family would be able to do all my homework for me if I dated him!"

"I noticed she completely missed the fact that your father came back as well," Luna chipped in. "I do understand more why you would forget about your communicator now, but you must be more careful in the future, and there may be a problem."

"A problem?" Ami asked, as Usagi danced around in the background in one of her fantasies about boys.

"Rei DID report an unusual trace outside of your apartment building last night, and she did sense dark energy in it."

Ami thought for a moment and then pulled the Mercury Computer out of its pocket. "I didn't detect anything, but Rei's abilities as a miko may make her capable of finding things the computer didn't… Still, they really didn't seem like they were from the Dark Kingdom or anything."

"Maybe so," Luna said, "But it is slightly suspicious that this happened so shortly after you've become a Sailor Senshi. Perhaps we should get Rei to meet your new family."

Ami laughed nervously. "That… might not be the best idea."

"Why?" Usagi said, having apparently returned from her daydream.

"Well, um, my father and brother are…" She looked for something to say that was true, but didn't sound insulting, or interesting enough to grab Usagi's curiosity. Unfortunately, she was interrupted by the bell that ended break.

"We'll decide when to come over later, okay?" Usagi chirped, before turning towards class. Ami looked to Luna, but she'd already gone searching for an exit.

"This isn't going to end well, is it?" she asked, rhetorically.

END.

"Rei DID report an unusual trace outside of your apartment building last night, and she did sense dark energy in it."

Theoretical Ami: So what, Rei's a bloodhound now?

Jonakhensu: Damn it Ami, learn how to snark!

Weebee: Yes readers, we MST our own chapters far too often.

Jonakhensu: … while we write them.

Yes, Zoisite is female, which means we're swiping bits from the dub. We're also considering a few plot points from the manga. Personally, Weebee is happy about this due to finding her insanity much more interesting than the 'how-many-stereotypes-can-I-put-in flat character that he originally was. Still, this decision was made the way we make many of our decisions, using a d6 and the maxim that Osaka is odd, so really, randomness is to blame, not us.

Jonakhensu: SWIPER NO SWIPING! SWIPER NO SWIPING!

Weebee: Now the notes? And seriously, Dora the explorer?

We're sorry folks, we don't know what was in the water this week, but we want more of it. and Jonak has just informed Weebee that it's the beer… DAMNED INABILITY TO DRINK ALCOHOL! DAMN IT TO HELL!

...okay, we're done. Sorry for how long these notes got. 


End file.
